The news is reporting that death toll could be 10,000. I would not be surprised if it was higher, maybe double or triple that... I hope it isn't but looking at the devastation makes it hard to believe it could not be higher.

Logged

And now you've changed your mind, I see no reason to change mine --Lennon/McCartney

It's a terrible tragedy. I can't believe some of the devastation in the TV pictures from along that coastline.I hope that the nuclear power stations can be stabilised OK so that this threat doesn't add to the already huge problems that people there are facing.

Apparently there's something wrong with the cooling systems on at least one reactor so now they're pumping sea water into it in attempts to cool it down fast enough to avoid a meltdown. (Just what I heard on the news this morning)

Contradicting earlier reports that claimed the Fukushima nuclear power plant suffered no reactor core damage, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano today admitted that a "partial core meltdown" is now underway. This is being reported at the Washington Post and Nikkei.com and elsewhere.

A fire at a fourth reactor of the 40-year-old General Electric model Fukushima I Nuclear Power Station in Japan has released more radiation into the atmosphere and has the government telling people within a 19-mile radius to stay indoors.

With trace radiation being measured as far as 175 miles away in Tokyo, and some experts calling this the "worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl," residents and officials want to know about the risk of radiation exposure.